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Decentralization and Local Governance in MENA : A Survey of Policies, Institutions, and PracticesEntering the 21st century, the 1999-2000 World Development Report (WDR), identifies two main forces that are shaping the world in which development policy is being defined and implemented: (i) globalization, the increasing worldwide integration of private sector interaction and commercial relationships; and (ii) localization, a process of devolving fiscal and administrative roles and responsibilities from central to sub-national tiers of government. It goes on to note that these global-private and local-public pressures are not only reinforcing, but also challenging traditional paradigms and forms of intergovernmental systems. Political decentralization, often associated with pluralistic politics and representative government, aims to give citizens more say in public policy and decision-making. Its advocates assume that decisions made with greater participation will be better informed and more relevant to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political authorities. The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents. Administrative decentralization aims to redistribute authority, responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of government. It typically takes three forms: de-concentration, delegation and devolution. Fiscal decentralization vests greater autonomy and authority with local governments in matters of fiscal importance, empowering local governments to generate their own revenues, through taxes and user charges, as well as determining their expenditure priorities based on a clear assignment of functions and responsibilities. Over the last two decades, it has been estimated that more than 100 countries, most of them in the developing world, have experimented with various forms of decentralization.
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Decentralization, Accountability and Local Services in Sierra Leone : Situation Analysis, Key Challenges and Opportunities for ReformFollowing years of civil war that ended
 in 2002, Sierra Leone has pursued a policy of
 decentralization, devolving responsibility for many
 government functions to the Local Council level. The aims of
 this policy include achieving a more equitable and inclusive
 access to public services across the national territory, in
 part to alleviate regional inequities that contributed to
 the civil war. The implementation of the decentralization
 policy has faced many obstacles, however, including the need
 to rebuild local government institutions and capacity after
 30 years of centrally dominated governance; the limited
 devolution of financial resources; and multifaceted
 political economy hurdles. This report, first, analyzes the
 current state of decentralization in Sierra Leone; second,
 identifies the most prominent challenges to continued
 decentralization; and, third, discusses options for the way
 forward. The report draws on qualitative and quantitative
 data collected from both central and local government
 stakeholders, and takes the perspective that
 decentralization and strengthened local governance
 institutions are an effective means to localize development
 and improve the effective and equitable delivery of key
 public services. The study focuses on progress to date and
 standing challenges in four key areas of analysis: fiscal
 decentralization, human resource decentralization, ensuring
 inclusivity and accountability in local governance, and
 ensuring efficiency and responsiveness in service delivery.
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Subnational Taxation in Developing Countries : A Review of the LiteratureThis paper reviews the literature on tax
 assignment in decentralized countries. Ideally, own-source
 revenues should be sufficient to enable at least the richest
 subnational governments to finance from their own resources
 all locally-provided services that primarily benefit local
 residents. Subnational taxes should also not unduly distort
 the allocation of resources. Most importantly, to the extent
 possible subnational governments should be accountable at
 the margin for financing the expenditures for which they are
 responsible. Although reality in most countries inevitably
 falls far short of these ideals, nonetheless there are
 several taxes that subnational governments in developing
 countries could use to help ensure that decentralization
 yields more of the benefits it appears to promise in theory.
 At the local level, such taxes include property taxes and,
 especially for larger cities, perhaps also a limited and
 well-designed local business tax. At the regional level, in
 addition to taxes on vehicles, governments in some countries
 may be able to utilize any or all of the following -- a
 payroll tax; a simple surcharge on the central personal
 income tax; and a sales tax, in some cases perhaps taking
 the form of a well-designed regional value-added tax. The
 "best" package for any particular country or
 subnational government is likely to be not only
 context-specific and path-dependent, but also highly
 sensitive to the balance struck between different political
 and economic factors and interests.